{"id":89022,"date":"2013-10-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelstartblg.wpenginepowered.com\/the-best-washington-dc-museums\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:51:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:51:37","slug":"the-best-washington-dc-museums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/the-best-washington-dc-museums\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Washington DC museums"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/travelstartstg.wpenginepowered.com\/the-best-washington-dc-museums\/photo1-3\/#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-29910\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29910\" src=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/photo1-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"461\" height=\"461\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We recently spent a month in the USA (I know \u2013 how lucky are we?) and began our <a title=\"Book cheap flights to Washington DC, USA\" href=\"http:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/lp\/washington\/flights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">glorious trip in Washington DC <\/a>\u2013 by far one of my favourite cities in the US.<\/p>\n<p>Why\u2019s that? Well, it\u2019s a wonderfully walkable city, with monuments on every street corner (it seems) and great green spaces to picnic on if you need a break from the endless walking (which you will). But mostly, because of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Smithsonian museums<\/a>. If you hadn\u2019t heard, all the museums on DC\u2019s Mall (a long strip of grass lined with museums on every side) are free. Free, and wonderful. Here\u2019s my round-up of the best Washington DC museums:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>The Air and Space Museum<\/strong><br \/>\nIf you\u2019re a space geek, this will be like a playground for you. Everything you ever wanted to know about space travel, including all the little details like what the astronauts eat and how they wash (and go to the toilet!) all in one space. The videos, the space suits, the interiors of the spaceships, they\u2019ve got it all \u2013 along with every aeroplane ever built (or so it seems). Looking for an even bigger thrill? Head for the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport, where they have the original Discovery space craft on display!<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Natural History Museum<\/strong><br \/>\nThink of the best natural history museum you\u2019ve ever seen, on steroids. My favourite display this time around was the Butterfly Pavilion, where you could walk through an enclosed garden filled with butterflies \u2013 awesome!<\/li>\n<li><strong>The American History Museum<\/strong><br \/>\nIt might not sound too exciting, until I tell you that inside this museum are Dorothy\u2019s original ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, the original Kermit the Frog, and the original (complete!) kitchen belonging to Julia Child.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And that hardly scrapes the surface. The National Art Gallery breathtaking, the Holocaust Museum is heartbreaking and the Museum of the American Indian is top of my list for next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We recently spent a month in the USA (I know \u2013 how lucky are we?) and began our glorious trip in Washington DC \u2013 by far one of my favourite cities in the US. Why\u2019s that? Well, it\u2019s a wonderfully walkable city, with monuments on every street corner (it seems) and great green spaces to picnic on if you need a break from the endless &#8230; <a title=\"The Best Washington DC museums\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/the-best-washington-dc-museums\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Best Washington DC museums\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":89023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,445],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","category-destinations-travel","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Best 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